CONTRIBUTE

30 April 2012

MEXICO CITY -- The campaign for the front-runner in Mexico's presidential election is producing reality TV-style documentary videos that show him kissing and flirting with his wife, eating ice cream and returning home after a day on the campaign trail to hug his daughters.

The videos constitute a new level in the blurring of lines between politics and pop media in Mexico, and appear to be energizing support among voters.

Enrique Peña Nieto, galloping toward the July 1 vote with a double-digit lead over his two main rivals, would be the first president from the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the 21st century. The PRI, often labeled through its history as quasi-authoritarian, was booted from power in 2000.

The videos primarily star Peña Nieto's wife, telenovela actress Angelica Rivera, and are narrated from her perspective under the title, "What My Eyes See, and What My Heart Feel" (links in Spanish). In them, she follows her husband to campaign events and chats with him between stops in clips that feel like journals or diary entries.

One ends with Peña, 45, and Rivera, 41, arriving home and letting the viewer in on plans for an evening of dinner, bathing and bedtime. In another, he samples local ice cream. Here's a new clip from a stop in Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco:

The videos are meant to show an informal, intimate side of the couple, who married in 2010 after the sudden death in 2007 of Peña Nieto's first wife, Monica Pretelini, while he governed the central state of Mexico. The clips have garnered thousands of views on YouTube and "likes" on Facebook. There, Rivera's public page frequently posts casual snapshots of her and her family.

Political advertising in Mexico's two most recent presidential campaigns, won by Vicente Fox in 2000 and fellow conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006, has moved steadily toward a more U.S.-style media approach. The PRI's effort this year takes the current social-media orientation of Mexican politics to a new level.

Peña Nieto personifies the trend, making some political commentators bemoan the nature of the 2012 race. In a Jan. 27 column in the daily Reforma, author Juan Villoro called Peña Nieto a "political hologram" and a "tele-candidate."

"There is no election today that is not decided in the media," Villoro wrote. "Trusting in this precept, the PRI has chosen a telegenic candidate. The problem is that he appears to have little more than luminous wrapping."

U.S. officials in Mexico have been watching Peña Nieto's rise for years, noting his telegenic qualities since the start, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. One of those cables from 2009 relays a description of Peña Nieto as "a pretty face with nationwide appeal, but lacking in substance and political savvy."

His strongest detractors early on were apparently concentrated within his own party, the leaked cables show. In another from 2009, contacts inside the PRI told U.S. officials that they believed Peña was "paying media outlets under the table for favorable news coverage, as well as potentially financing pollsters to sway survey results."

His campaign has carefully guarded his public appearances, and the videos in "What My Eyes See, and What My Heart Feels," although edited with an unscripted, chop-and-cut flair, are no different.

During his first campaign stop in the city of Oaxaca, for example, Rivera's video diary showed an upbeat Peña Nieto greeting supporters at the city's central plaza but no images of the crowds of demonstrators who had gathered to protest the PRI machine.

The party isn't alone in pumping funds into sleek documentary-style video spots.

The campaign for Josefina Vazquez Mota, candidate for the conservative National Action Party, released a video Wednesday documenting her visit that day to the prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey university.

In it, she speaks to students in an auditorium, then responds to a protestor who yells at her from the audience. The nature of the protestor's complaint, however, is not specified, and neither is the candidate's response, for that matter. Instead, the video ends with a crescendo of music and the candidate calling over applause, "Do not tire of truth! Do not tire of liberty!"

21 April 2012

Glowing red rocks were thrown from the top of the active Popocatepetl volcano at dawn Friday, producing more spectacular (and slightly frightening) images from the peak southeast of populous Mexico City. But authorities did not raise the alert level for a potential major eruption.

"Popo" or "Don Goyo," as the volcano is affectionately known, has been shooting plumes of ash, gas and rocks for a week. Residents of the semirural communities near the volcano have reported hearing hours of "low-pitched roaring" emanating from the 17,887-foot Popocatepetl.

President Felipe Calderon said Friday during a meeting with governors of the peak's neighboring states that the government is prepared, in case evacuations become necessary. Authorities said contingency plans are ready if the volcanic activity threatens residents in the states of Mexico, Puebla and Morelos.

"The volcano is in command," said Roberto Quaas, director of Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center.

The government has not raised its alert level on the volcano since Monday. Yet a week of sustained exhalations has produced worry among some Mexicans who live near "Popo," which is visible from some points of Mexico City on days with relatively low pollution.

An estimated 5 million people would be directly affected by a large-scale eruption, and some 19 million other people live near the volcano.

Popocatepetl, which means "smoking mountain" in the Aztec's language Nahuatl, dominates much of the landscape in central Mexico along with its "twin" volcano, the dormant Iztaccihuatl.

18 April 2012

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano has ramped up activity in recent days, spewing ash and gas and prompting authorities to raise the alert level for neighboring communities in the states of Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Puebla.

The federal government said "Popo," as the volcano is commonly known, has been spewing red-hot rocks and also seen its lava dome expand in recent days. Ash has fallen on some communities and glowing light has been photographed atop the 17,887-foot peak at night.

The volcano has "exhaled" at least 14 times since Friday, said a recorded message at the National Disaster Prevention Center. Popo, located about 50 miles southeast of Mexico City, has been increasingly active in recent months, the center said. Late Monday, the official alert level for the volcano was raised a notch, but remained short of a grade that would require evacuations.

Separately, Mexico has been rattled in recent weeks by a series of strong earthquakes, including a 7.4 temblor on March 20 that briefly prompted a false rumor of a rising volcano near the quake's epicenter in the state of Guerrero.

* Photo: Ash and smoke rise from Popocatepetl volcano, as seen from the town of Xalitzintla in the central state of Puebla on Tuesday. Credit: Pablo Spencer/AFP/Getty Images

14 April 2012

In 2006, when he came within a hair of winning Mexico's presidency, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was called a "danger to Mexico" by his opponents on the right, a would-be Hugo Chavez who would plunge the country into an economic crisis.

Six years later, Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, is back and in a second run for the country's top office.

This time around, he has sought to soften his image, and the traditionally conservative business elites now appear open to at least listening to the man bidding to become Mexico's first leftist president in modern times.

On Thursday, Lopez Obrador addressed a group of leading private-sector finance chiefs for the first time in his political career. He was greeted with smirks and chuckles at some points, but drew applause when he said he'd basically "maintain macroeconomic policies" currently in place in Mexico.

He also told the Institute of Mexican Finance Executives during a freewheeling two-hour breakfast session that he'd aggressively seek to reduce poverty and "combat corruption" and waste through austerity measures.

He said his team believes it can make Mexico's economy grow 6% annually while creating 1.2 million new jobs a year, through a mix of public and private investments, including roads and refineries. His overall model, he said, is rising economic powerhouse Brazil under leftist leader and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

With austerity cuts, the government could save billions of pesos a year, Lopez Obrador added; he'd start by halving the presidential salary and flying in commercial jets if elected.

"If we don't combat poverty and inequality, we will keep seeing frustration, insecurity, and violence," he said.

Lopez Obrador, 59, has been running third for most of this election season heading to the July 1 vote. Yet in recent days, as conservative opponent Josefina Vazquez Mota has made a series of stumbles, he appears to be moving up in some polls.

Still, even a dramatic surge in support for either candidate might be too little, too late, to top the candidate for the resurgent formerly ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, Enrique Peña Nieto, who maintains a comfortable double-digit lead over both.

It was unclear how strongly Lopez Obrador's message resonated with the business group. One attendee, Beatriz Zarur, said that in 2006 she supported Felipe Calderon, the current president. This year, she said she was still unsure whom to support.

"I think he has some interesting proposals, but at the same time, he's got things that I don't agree with," said Zarur, who works for a law firm in Boston and whose mother is an IMEF member.

"I am not a partisan," Zarur added. "I don't care if she's a woman or he's handsome. I'm interested in proposals and in candidates."

13 April 2012

Mexicans' trust in their military and national police has steadily declined since 2007, the first full year of President Felipe Calderon's war against drug cartels, a new Gallup poll says.

The poll released last week also finds that most Mexicans said they felt less safe walking alone at night in 2011 than they did in 2007.

The findings suggest that two key points of perception in Mexico's conflict -- safety and confidence in authorities -- have eroded since the start of the military-led campaign in late 2006.

In the poll, 56% of Mexicans said they didn't feel safe walking alone at night in their city or neighborhood in 2011, in contrast to 57% who said they felt safe walking alone at night in 2007.

The poll shows a steady decline of confidence in the military, from 64% in 2007 to 58% in 2011. Only 38% of respondents expressed confidence in the government in 2011, and 35% said they trusted the federal police, down significantly from 50% in 2007, Gallup reports.

allup said it has polled approximately 1,000 Mexican citizens 15 or older, in face-to-face interviews, starting in July 2007.

As Mexico's drug war nears the six-year mark, more than 50,000 people have been killed in related violence and thousands more are missing.

The Gallup poll measures public perceptions of safety and security institutions in Mexico through December. Recent data released by Mexico's national statistics institute, however, indicate that public safety perception has improved as recently as last month.

INEGI, as the institute is known by its Spanish acronym, said its Public Safety Perception Index rose 5.5 points in March 2012 from March 2011 (pdf link in Spanish). The index measures how safe Mexicans feel walking in the area where they live between 4 and 7 p.m.

Photo: Soldiers and federal police inspect a car that police said contains four human heads in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco on March 22. Violence continues in Acapulco as drug gangs battle for control of the region. Credit: Bernandino Hernandez / Associated Press

11 April 2012

What does it mean that Mexican migrants are returning to their home lands, starting up farms, and wearing U.S. military surplus while doing it?

In this report in the Christian Science Monitor, the workers followed by reporter Sarah Miller Llana all appear to be wearing recent U.S. military surplus, clothes concievably manufactured for the United States's war campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Here are more:

So, Mexican workers pushed north to the United States by the economic realities in both countries, returning home to Guanajuato after the U.S. downturn, and starting up new farms wearing soldier gear? No idea.

Read the full report here, another homage to "net zero migration," and the video of the guys here. A strong, deeply reported story.

10 April 2012

After an emptying stadium, angry protests, and a near fainting spell, Mexican presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota on Monday announced a "change of course" in her campaign to be elected Mexico's first female president.

The race for the presidency is still commanded comfortably by front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto, the fresh-faced candidate of the old-guard party known as the PRI. As the days tick away toward the July 1 vote, Vazquez Mota and the other trailing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, are searching for a boost.

"We're going to show that we are different," Vazquez Mota said at her headquarters, echoing the ruling party's central campaign theme, "Diferente."

The candidate has struggled practically since the day the race started.

Her party's major event to name her as its candidate started hours late; and images later showed her speaking as the stadium was emptying of weary supporters.

She's been confronted by testy citizens or protesters at public events. She seemed to nearly faint during a security forum. During one speech, Vazquez Mota said, "We are going to strengthen money laundering," apparently misspeaking or misreading prepared remarks.

But how "different" were the adjustments made on Monday? Not terribly.

Several of the names announced as new campaign advisors or coordinators are identified as insiders or confidants of current President Felipe Calderon.

Among the group joining Vazquez Mota is Rafael Gimenez, who was Calderon's internal pollster until he resigned Saturday from his post in the president's office. Also joining the campaign is the president's sister, Luisa Maria Calderon, and the president's brother-in-law, Juan Ignacio Zavala.

One local newspaper announced the shifts with the headline, "Calderonistas to the rescue."

Vazquez Mota told reporters that she is independent and autonomous in her leadership of efforts of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, to capture a third consecutive presidency. But she also acknowledged that the party's long three-way internal primary hurt her campaign in its crucial launch.

"We've had less time to prepare than others," she said.

Vazquez Mota is trailing a wide second in polls behind Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. She said that her campaign's new focus will be undecided voters, who currently account for about a third of the electorate.

Vazquez Mota has focused her attacks on Peña Nieto, but she's also taken a few jabs at Lopez Obrador, the leftist coalition leader making his second bid for the presidency.

"We're going to show that we respect the institutions, not only when we win," she said, in a reference to Lopez Obrador's refusal to accept the 2006 presidential result, in which he lost to Calderon by less than a percentage point.

Lopez Obrador's campaign in recent days has released a video showing actors and famous writers endorsing his bid, as well as an interactive image showing his potential future Cabinet in the style of the familiar cover for the Beatles rock album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

05 April 2012

Elizabeth Catlett, a U.S.-born artist who directly confronted the injustices faced by African Americans and celebrated black identity and culture through her work, has died in her longtime home in Mexico.

Catlett, who died Monday, had lived in Mexico since 1946. She spent most of her years here as an exile from the United States, which in 1962 tagged her an "undesirable alien" after she became a Mexican citizen. Her U.S. citizenship was eventually reinstated in 2002.

"Confident that art could foster social change, Catlett confronted the most disturbing injustices against African Americans, including lynchings and beatings," says The Times article written by Mary Rourke and Valerie J. Nelson. "One of her best-known sculptures, 'Target' (1970), was created after police shot a Black Panther; it shows a black man's head framed by a rifle sight."

In Mexico, she belonged to the international circle of new artists that included Diego Rivera and Pablo O'Higgins, which early on was partly centered at the printmaking collective Taller de Grafica Popular. Between 1959 and 1975, Catlett chaired the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, training many young Mexican artists and teaching in Spanish.

Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., memorialized Catlett in a message via Twitter on Tuesday night: "Mexico & the US today lose a great sculptor and printmaker, Elizabeth Catlett, an American by birth and a Mexican by choice."

Reporting her death, Mexico's national arts council said: "Through her work, Elizabeth Catlett always demonstrated her interest in social justice and the rights of black Mexican women."

Catlett is survived by Mexican children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You can see more of her work and read more about her personal history here.